How Friends can help you to Quit Smoking

Stopping smoking can be challenging to say the least, but the health benefits make it very worthwhile. If you have difficulty, then you can enlist your friends to help you. They may be able to provide assistance in a variety of ways.
They can be your cheerleaders
You can ask your friends to root for you. Try to talk to the friends who are very excited about you stopping smoking. Tell them every time you make an accomplishment such as go another week without lighting up. They may get excited. Hearing their excitement may help spur you on to try harder.
Be responsible to them
You can force yourself to tell a friend every time you mess up and smoke a cigarette. Having someone to be responsible to may convince you to try harder so that you do not have to report bad news to them. You can make it a formal thing such as that you report to them every month, week or even day. Alternatively, you can make it informal and have them ask you about it every time they talk to you.
Work with a buddy who is also trying to quit smoking
If you have a friend who is quitting smoking with you then you can support each other. You can talk to each other about the challenges, but hopefully convince each other that it is still important to keep at it. You can have someone that you can go to if you have a setback, and hopefully they can convince you that a minor setback is no reason to give up. You may also feel more motivated yourself by helping them. You may give them advice, which you will then have to listen to.
You can also team up with a friend who has a goal different then stopping smoking. For instance, if a friend is trying to lose weight, then you can help them do that while they help you to stop smoking.
Let them tell you why it is so important to quit
Many smokers have a variety of friends who want them to quit. They may be happy to talk to you about all of the reasons why you should such as that you will reduce your chances of lung cancer, are likely to live longer, etc. Hearing these statements from your friends may be helpful in your quest to stop smoking.
You should tap into all of the resources at your disposal to stop smoking, including your friends. They may help you in one or several of the above ways.
135, 2011